


The Minotaur

by Zetal (Rodinia)



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Daily Supernatural Prompts, Labyrinth - Freeform, M/M, Minotaur - Freeform, Mythology - Freeform, Not the David Bowie Movie, Why Do I Abuse Poor Sam Like This?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-28
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 17:04:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7323559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rodinia/pseuds/Zetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A labyrinth pops up in the middle of the desert.  Sam and Dean go to investigate, and Sam ends up hurt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Minotaur

**Author's Note:**

> From the blog: http://dailyspnprompts.tumblr.com/  
> Original prompt: http://dailyspnprompts.tumblr.com/post/145375254282/t-generic-oneshot
> 
> T | Generic | Oneshot
> 
> Dean rushes into a maze to hunt down a monster, ahead of Sam. Evidently, he doesn’t come out for a while and Sam gets worried so he rushes in after. When they finally find each other, one of them is not in the best state.

“Come on. Two out of three.” Dean held up his hand for rock paper scissors.

Sam rolled his eyes. “You’re just gonna lose again, Dean. You always lose.”

“Then what’s it gonna hurt, huh?” Dean shook the fist, and Sam brought his hand up. If Dean wanted to be an idiot, Sam was willing to let him. Sure enough, rock still beat scissors, and Dean made a noise of frustration. “Okay. I go first. You give me half an hour and then come in if I’m not back out. You got your ball of yarn?”

“Yeah. I still feel like a cat, but I’ve got it right here.” Sam held up the bright red ball. “You got yours?”

“Of course, Sammy.” Dean held up the bright blue ball he was going to carry. As he approached the entrance, he tied one end of the yarn to a stick and jammed the stick into the doorframe. “Hey, plus side… I get to see the freakin’ minotaur, man! How awesome is that?”

“Just get in there and kill it so we can dismantle the giant maze.” Sam laughed as Dean made a face at him and disappeared.

The half-hour wait was torturous, and Sam spent it wondering what other Greek myths might come to life. He’d just decided that he would love to face a gorgon when the alarm on his phone went off, warning him that it was time to move. His yarn was already tied off, and he set out into the labyrinth to find his brother and the minotaur, in whatever order that happened.

 

Dean would’ve sworn it was only five minutes, but the red yarn he saw stretching through a corridor told him it had obviously been way longer. Either that, or Sam had gotten impatient and decided he wanted to see the minotaur. Time dilation wasn’t a property of labyrinths that he’d ever heard of, but then again, he’d never heard of a labyrinth in the open desert of Arizona, either.

There was probably a good explanation for why Sam wasn’t following the blue yarn trail. Dean just hoped it was Sam was going for the minotaur first and would come find Dean after, and not something was shifting the labyrinth as they went through it. He tied the blue yarn to the red and cut it off, then started following the red yarn. It was as good a strategy as any. Saved yarn, too, although Dean did cut small pieces off to tie to the red yarn every so often.

The halls started narrowing, dimming, and Dean hoped that meant he was approaching the middle. When the red yarn abruptly cut off, he forced himself to keep calm. That didn’t mean much. That just meant that Sam was nearby. He tied his blue yarn to the end of the red and kept going.

Two more left turns took Dean to a wide open hall, with a brightly-lit door. Either he’d gotten turned around and found another entrance, or he’d made it to the center. The machete coated in pig’s blood was in his hand as he approached.

It led to a large, circular room. There were a lot of things to notice, but only two that were important. One: there was a giant bull-headed man lying on the ground surrounded by blood, clutching his leg. Two: the minotaur was standing over his brother roaring and preparing to strike. “Hey! Ugly!” Dean pulled his gun and fired.

The minotaur bellowed in pain as the bullet hit his arm. He whirled and charged at Dean. Dean got out of the way, tripping the minotaur as it charged past him. He raised the machete and started hacking, trying to weaken the beast. When its thrashing slowed, Dean lined up the shot and took its head off.

Dean dropped to his knees beside Sam, trying to work out what was wrong, what had been done to him. Sure, he might think his brother was metaphorically bull-headed, but only the fact that the actual minotaur wasn’t wearing plaid meant that he could be sure he hadn’t killed the wrong one. Sam, bless him, had his phone out and was doing his best to keep pressure on a wound in his leg with one hand while he typed a message with the other.

_Curse. Minotaur bled into my leg. Need to break. Not sure how. Hoped when minotaur died._

“Well, shit.” Dean looked at the leg. It needed to be bandaged, but doing it anywhere near right would have to wait until they were back out. He did the best he could with what they had on hand. Sam wouldn’t bleed out, but that was about the best Dean could say for it. “All right, up you go. I can’t haul your ass back to the car, you’re gonna have to try to walk. Hop. Whatever you can do, little brother. Let’s get you out of here.”

Somehow, thanks to the yarn, Dean managed to get Sam out. And again, somehow, time dilation. They’d started in the morning; the sun was down. Dean checked the stars – it was well after midnight. In good news, for some reason Castiel was sitting on the hood of the Impala. “Cas? Little help here?”

Castiel snapped to attention and reached out to Sam. The leg was an easy fix. The head, not so much. “Let’s get him out of here. There is still magic in the labyrinth, and it’s interfering with my ability to restore Sam’s usual appearance.”

“There’s still magic? What do we gotta do to shut this thing down?” Dean looked back at the maze. He’d have figured once the minotaur was dead, so was the labyrinth.

“Time. Without the minotaur to feed it, the labyrinth’s magic will fade within a week. Thankfully it’s in a remote location, so tourism should be minimal.” Castiel touched Dean’s arm. “We need to get Sam out of here. The longer he’s stuck like this, the more he’ll become like the minotaur, until he becomes one and generates his own labyrinth.”

“Right. Wouldn’t want that.” They got Sam in the Impala, in the backseat where he could sit in the middle so his horns wouldn’t break a window, and Dean took off.

Ten miles out, Sam started shaking. After another five, Sam let out a bellow that nearly drove Dean off the road. “Cas? What the fuck was that?”

Castiel reached out and touched Sam’s head. “The magic is breaking. It will likely be painful for Sam. I’ll hold him still, but we need to get him farther away so that he can change back. Drive.” Castiel wrapped his arms around Sam’s head, and though Dean couldn’t see it, he could feel the wind from the wings as they settled around Sam.

Twenty-six miles away from the labyrinth, Sam let out another bellow, which transitioned to a scream. Castiel held tight as Sam started to thrash, taking several bruising blows from the nearer horn that he shrugged off until the horn disappeared. It only lasted for a couple minutes, but that was enough. Dean never wanted to watch that again.

Of course, Sam probably had no desire to ever go through that again. “Ow. Thanks.”

Castiel kissed the top of Sam’s head. “Are you all right now? Are there any other injuries I need to take care of? Dean, were you hurt?”

“I’m fine. Welcome back to the land of verbal skills, Sammy. How’d you beat me to the center of the labyrinth?”

Sam leaned into Cas. “I’m good at mazes.” Dean shook his head. He didn’t mind them cuddling around him, but in the backseat of the Impala while he was trying to drive? Really? On the other hand, Sam had just been through a pretty traumatic experience, and he could use the comfort. “Honestly? I don’t know. I ran out of yarn, but it felt like I basically went straight to the center. No excessively loopy turns, never had to retrace my steps… I didn’t follow your string because I figured you were lost, and if I went a different way, we’d explore twice as fast.”

“Figured it was something like that.” Dean looked in the mirror, making sure that Sam looked okay. It was still hard, letting Cas take care of Sammy instead of doing it himself, but he had to admit that Cas was good at it. “What happens if someone wanders into the labyrinth now?”

“They emerge when the magic wears off enough, thoroughly confused but otherwise unharmed. It shouldn’t be a problem. I’d offer to stay and keep an eye on it, but the magic includes warding against angels or I’d have gone in after you when you failed to show up when you said you would and I couldn’t reach your phones.”

“Unharmed’s good enough for me. Don’t wanna bring Sammy too close.” Sam stuck his tongue out at Dean. “Man, I’m hungry. Anyone else in the mood for a good juicy burger? Steak? Beef barbecue?”

**Author's Note:**

> I love comments the way High School Me loved Greek mythology.  
> (True story: I was on a quiz game team. You could have four people on your team for any given match, but you could switch people out freely between matches. Before one match, our coach flipped a coin to decide whether I was in or another player was in. Then we got to a lightning round: ten questions to answer as quickly as possibly. Our category? Mythological Mothers. I was focused on the game, but my dad said the coach got the coin out and thanked it. ...I then proceeded to miss two of the questions and I am still kicking myself to this day. (Confusing Selene and Simile is excusable. I knew who I meant, I just got the similar names mixed up. But I missed JOCASTA.))


End file.
